<div dir="ltr"><h1 class="gmail-story-h">Alberta government holding French language policy consultations with francophone community</h1>
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<div class="gmail-fe-embed-caption"><p><strong>WATCH ABOVE: Mon, Sep 12 -
Edmonton MP Randy Boissonnault discusses the federal government's cross
country official languages consultations.</strong></p></div>
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<p>More and more Albertans are speaking French these days, and now
the province is taking the first steps in developing a policy on
French-language services.</p><p>Starting later this month, the province
will hold nine targeted sessions in French for a broad cross-section of
the francophone community, with the goal of improving access to
government services in French.</p><p>“Alberta’s rich and vibrant
French-speaking community is an integral part of our cultural fabric,”
Culture and Tourism Minister Ricardo Miranda said.</p>
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<p>“This will enhance Alberta’s competitive advantage, strengthen our
relationship with the francophone community, and leverage Alberta’s fair
share of francophone funding from the federal government.”</p><p><strong>READ MORE: <a href="http://globalnews.ca/news/1827858/ministers-must-tweet-in-both-official-languages-says-language-czar/" target="_blank">Ministers must tweet in both official languages says language czar</a></strong></p><p>The
province said it won’t cost anything extra to develop a French-language
services policy because any policy implementation would be covered by
federal funding. Alberta is one of only two provinces to have neither a
policy nor legislation on services in French.</p><p>Alberta has the
fastest-growing francophone population outside of Quebec, increasing 40
per cent in the past 20 years. French is the second-most spoken language
in Alberta, after English. <a href="https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2011/as-sa/98-314-x/2011003/tbl/tbl3_1-6-eng.cfm" target="_blank">According to 2011 census data</a>,
there were 81,085 Francophones in Alberta, or 2.1 per cent of the
population. Edmonton has the largest francophone population of any
centre in the province.</p><p>The consultation process will be carried out by the <a href="http://culture.alberta.ca/francophone-secretariat/" target="_blank">Culture and Tourism ministry’s Francophone Secretariat</a>:
a liaison between the Alberta government and Alberta’s Francophone
community. The process will also include other government ministries and
representatives from select agencies.</p><p>Albertans who do not participate in the consultations can <a href="http://culture.alberta.ca/francophone-secretariat/" target="_blank">fill out an online survey</a>.</p><p>While French and English are Canada’s official languages, only 17.5 per cent of Canadians <a href="https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2011/as-sa/98-314-x/98-314-x2011001-eng.cfm" target="_blank">say they can carry on a conversation in both</a>.</p><p><a href="https://slmc.uottawa.ca/?q=english_french_legal" target="_blank">New Brunswick is the only official bilingual province</a>. All three federal territories are also officially bilingual.</p>
</span><br clear="all"><a href="http://globalnews.ca/news/3007789/alberta-government-holding-french-language-policy-consultations-with-francophone-community/">http://globalnews.ca/news/3007789/alberta-government-holding-french-language-policy-consultations-with-francophone-community/</a><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature">**************************************<br>N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its members<br>and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal, and to write directly to the original sender of any offensive message. A copy of this may be forwarded to this list as well. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)<br><br>For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to <a href="https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/" target="_blank">https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/</a><br>listinfo/lgpolicy-list<br>*******************************************</div>
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